The Boy In The Striped Pajamas

I just watched the most amazing movie about two little eight year-old boys, Bruno and Schmuel -- one the son of the commandant of a German concentration camp, the other a prisoner in the camp. The horrors of the Holocaust are seen through the innocence and simplicity of their eight year-old eyes, as they form a friendship through the barbed wire fence surrounding the camp, and as we watch the trust they build in each other, we are reminded that we are all the same. So, here we are all these years later, and people are still doing the same things to each other -- the Palestinian and Israeli war; the civil war in Darfur; the war in Afghanistan; the Iraq war. People never seem to learn, do they?

I’m not going to say anything more about the movie, except to say if you haven’t seen it yet, you should watch it. It’s a thing of beauty from start to finish. The movie won several awards, including the audience choice award at the Chicago Film Festival. The two little boys who play Bruno and Schmuel are just delightful, but be prepared -- you will fall in love with them.

The movie is based on a book written by John Boyne. He had originally written the book as a children’s book, but it is definitely not for children.

Every once in a while I will watch a movie that is so good, I immediately want to watch it again. This movie is one of those movies. And yes, they all speak with "plummy" British accents, but I would rather hear that than listening to them speaking English with phony German accents.